The Cancer Drug Testing Laboratories Group

Assessing the activity of new drugs and novel drug combinations against particular cancers can provide data that help inform the development of early phase clinical trials. While preclinical drug testing has traditionally had a limited ability to predict activity of a new drug in a given type of cancer, methodologies for assessing anti-cancer activity continue to improve. In addition, developing more biological materials with which to carry out such testing, such as cancer cell lines that grow in the laboratory or in special (immunocompromised) mice, offers the possibility of enhancing the ability of laboratory testing to predict clinical activity.

The philosophy of the CanDLab laboratories is that phase I and phase II clinical trials are best carried out in patients having a diagnosis for which anti-cancer activity of the new drug or drug combination has been demonstrated in the laboratory. Due to ethical concerns, and limited patient numbers, this is especially true in pediatric oncology.

CanDLab is devoted to promoting interactions among laboratories and consortia that carry out preclinical testing for activity of anti-cancer drugs. This website provides summaries of laboratories carrying our preclinical testing of anti-cancer drugs, and links to those laboratories' web sites. Also provided are archives of protocols for various drug-testing technologies, discussions of methods, and a bibliography.

One goal of CanDLab is to provide a source for the scientific community at large to find information on cancer preclinical testing methodology, so as to stimulate all those conducting preclinical testing of anti-neoplastic drugs to employ the most robust methods available.